Psychotherapy
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John lay in the hard uncomfortable leather couch trying to concentrate on what the distinguished man in the leather recliner was saying. As he looked at him he could see an uncomfortable older gentleman with a yellow pad in hand and glasses almost falling off of his nose. As he looked around the room he could see dumb trinkets all over the room. John guessed they were his collectables that he had acquired as he had traveled. But John just thought they were dumb. He looked back up at the man they called his therapist and saw his mouth flapping in the wind. John didnt have a clue what this guy was talking about he just kept thinking to himself, “And they say I am the crazy one.”
When people hear the word psychotherapy they think of just that. The study of psychotherapy includes much more than people realize. When one thinks of psychotherapy they usually think of a shrink talking the patient to death while the patient lies on a nice couch thinking of ways to fix his messed up life. However, Psychotherapy includes so much more. It is the study of what makes people tick, what makes or breaks an individual, what causes one person to live a happy and cheerful life and another to mercilessly claw their way through life feeling inadequate, and what makes one person come out of trial stronger and another come out conquered. There is no one answer to any of these questions, but psychotherapy is attempting to find solutions for every individual problem. I love to learn more about helping people solve their problems and helping them to improve their quality of life. Not every problem can be handled the same for every person and that is why the subject of psychotherapy is so important. Through different ideas and theories, psychotherapy has been able to help and bless the lives of many people. Some psychotherapy approaches are closely related to the medical model in the way that psychotherapists take family and history details, make assessments and
diagnose and formulate treatment for a patient.
Background of Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy began long ago with ancient Greece and Rome, but I would like to briefly discuss its history here in the United States. The American father of Psychotherapy was Benjamin Rush. He was a very famous Psychologist and was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In the 19th century the American Psychiatric Association was formed. In this time psychotherapy was heavily integrated into the hospital setting. In the late 19th century, psychological medicine was added as part of the therapy.
At this time Freuds ideas about psychotherapy influenced greatly how things were done in the United States. Even though he was French, his ideas influenced America more than Europe. At this time, the popularity of private practice grew substantially. Due to this outbreak of private practices many other psychotherapists began publishing their theories and writings. After WWII, the practice of psychotherapy became extremely popular due to post war trauma and stress. Today, many types of psychotherapy are used in all kinds of treatment facilities.
What is Psychotherapy?
The essence of psychotherapy is a “specialized human relationship designed to mediate experiences that bring about construction changes in the patients self concept and behavior” (Strupp, Binder, 1984, p. 40). The goal of psychotherapy is the attainment of qualities. Therapy is designed to help patients change themselves for the better. Sometimes, we imagine that any effort to influence other people is being intrusive. This is not true. When we respect and value other people then we attempt to help them.
Most all psychotherapy attempts to engage the patients subjectivity. It focuses its attention to the patients inner experiences. Our subjectivity is “our true home, our natural state, and our necessary state of refuge and renewal” (Bugental, 1987, p. 83). This part focuses on our creativity, our imagination, fears, perceptions, fantasies, and dreams. By focusing on the patients subjective, psychotherapy is able to analyze ways in which the patient is able to progress.
Psychotherapy is done as a process. Many psychotherapists call this the process of motivation. The goal is to get to the bottom of the patients feelings. We must learn not only how to motivate them to progress, but also, what motivates them with the choices they are making. The first part of this process is to find out why they chose poorly. The best way to go about this is to ask them. We need to ask about the things they were thinking and feeling before they choose to act. Were they feeling fear, anger, love, etc? We also need to ask, how they would have felt if they had acted differently. Therapists must learn to ask these questions without putting words into the patients mouth.
When we are searching for the patients motivation to act, we need to be careful not to pass judgment before we have discovered their true motivation. If we pass judgment prior, the patient will begin to close. If the patient can see that we are sincere with a desire to help, it will help us discover their true motives.
Feelings and desires that come from their past will be much harder for us to discover because the patient may not understand that those feelings and desires contribute to the problem. This may be hard for the patient to understand but it is necessary for the therapist to know. Freud strongly believed his theory that childhood motives dominate us throughout our whole lives. Freuds arguments are that these ideas are all hidden in the unconscious. It is the therapists jobs to open the patients subjective and find their true motives.
To do this, the first principle of the therapist is their ability to listen. By doing so, they are able to hear the unconscious thoughts by what the patient is saying without the patients saying it. Many times the patient doesnt know his subjective or unconscious, but it is revealed in everyday conversations. Through active listening, therapist can understand the inner feelings and thoughts of the patient and see what will be the most constructive intervention.
After active listening, the therapist must be able to see the patients concern, problem, or disturbance. Through this the therapist will also be able to gauge the patients willingness to progress. Psychotherapy sessions are based on themes. Themes are the certain problems that the therapist and patient deal with one at a time. As the patient is able to analyze the theme with the therapist, he is able to progress or at least see why they need to progress.
After the patient